From The Chair of
Chaplain Lodge 43
On the Twenty First day of January In the
Year of Our Lord Twenty Thousand and Twenty One
“State Of Misperception”
Brothers, often times we come up against a whole heap of opposition, opinions, viewpoints, antiquated traditions and in some cases religious regulations in our endeavor to enlist “good men” into our fraternity.
I’ve made a decision that I will not argue or debate the cannons of our fraternity or discuss the present state of our nation.
Likewise, it is my conclusion that folks have made up their mind to believe what they want to believe.
The spread of misinformation is inherently human. On the flipside of an evolutionary advantage, some cognitive biases might be desirable functional features. There are many that provides some reasons for the acquisition and persistence of misinformation:
1. Everyday conversational conduct requires you to accept rather than reject information in a conversation.
2. Your brain is lazy: you tend to believe something true when it is less demanding for your brain; you assess information based on what is coherent with what you already know.
3. The mere repetition of a claim can make you think that it’s true.
4. You can be emotionally biased if it fits the worldview you have.
One of my most reliable sources; Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the Nobel prize in economic sciences, explains these cognitive shortcuts with a concept of “WYSIATI” (What you see is all there is). We tend not to look for what we do not see. We rather rely on the information that is directly available to us, without being fully aware of what we do not know. If we just see some elements of a story, we construct the best story we can out of those partial elements.
In a nutshell, “don’t believe everything you read in the funny papers, or see on the boob tube.” I take the TIME to research through multiple mediums to verify sensitive subject matter, before I’ve come to a conclusion.
May the peace of the Almighty rule in your heart.
Brother, Kenneth F. Hudson, Sr.
Chaplain Lodge 43